A unique and well-designed piece of equipment
For DAFM synth - GENESIS YM2612 / YM3438
As a longtime LSDJ user and having come up as a child in the Nintendo side of the 8-bit and 16-bit eras--and grown fond of their respective sounds in the process--I only quite lately discovered the peculiarities of the Sega Genesis's own sound capabilities and began tinkering around with Deflemask. So lately, in fact, that it was almost immediately into my search for more hardware oriented approaches to this area of chipmusic production that I discovered the DAFM. This was quite fortuitous also because I had been looking into other FM synths and synth modules but wasn't quite sure I wanted to open such a can of worms when the constraints and character of the Genesis's particular approach to FM synthesis was what originally appealed to me. In any case, I believe the DAFM has settled the matter for me for some time to come.
Operating the synth does require some menu-diving, in a sense, but that's part and parcel with any approach to FM outside of a more limited hardware approach or without bringing software into the picture; however, the interface on this is handled with a fair bit of elegance. While I haven't yet gotten the opportunity to fully explore its MIDI options, I've been given to understand that they too are handled rather elegantly, with MIDI channel 1 utilizing the first channel of the chip (of six, given the nature of these particular sound chips) for the first voice in polyphony through the chip's six channels or with the remaining five voices utilized by their respective channels on the chip and through MIDI. This should work quite well for achieving most of the sorts of voices or parts one might need for a given composition or performance or what-have-you without making it overly complicated to achieve at least some amount of polyphony for a single voice without completely sacrificing the availability of other monophonic voices.
Suffice to say, I'm looking forward to delving further into this device and see much promise in its capabilities. Apart from the device itself, the creator has proven plenty communicative. Despite DHL having apparently lost my original order, I got a new one sent promptly enough after his having followed up on the matter (after my having brought his attention to the long period of idleness in the delivery tracking). I might have given a lower rating on documentation simply for the near-complete lack of any, but for some scattered demonstration videos; however, the device is so intuitive and its creator so willing to provide support that I'm finding myself so far with little need for further documentation (though I imagine further video demonstrations are forthcoming, at least, for those who might need it).
Anyway, a great product and communication, and if you're looking to incorporate the true chip sound of the 16-bit era in your music, this is quite probably the best and simplest way to go about it.
Response from KASSER SYNTHS | Feb. 19, 2019
Thanks Marshall for your nice and fair review. I am really glad the issue related to the shipment of the unit was solved and you can finally enjoy the FM synthesis through the original SEGA Genesis / Megadrive sound chip.
User quick guide is already finished and stored under the Specs and Docs section.
